Summer resort edit. New styles in the boutique now
Più di 8 Anni
I came back to Tokyo to make the thing I could not find here.
The story behind Tech Core Nex Wave
Haruka Nishimoto opened Tech Core Nex Wave in the spring of 2018 in a narrow shopfront on Kyu-Yamate-dori in Daikanyama, Tokyo. She had spent the previous eight years working as a pattern-cutter for a French lingerie house in Paris, and before that, two seasons assisting a swimwear designer in Barcelona. She came back to Tokyo with a specific frustration: the swimwear available in Japan was either fast-fashion disposable or imported luxury at prices that assumed a different kind of customer. She wanted to make something in between. Considered, well-made, priced honestly.
Il mestiere
The first collection, launched in March 2018, had seven pieces. The fabrics came from a mill in Lyon that Haruka had worked with in Paris; the sewing was done by herself and one assistant, Yuki Tanaka, who is still with the atelier today. The first run sold out in six weeks, mostly through word of mouth and one small feature in a Tokyo lifestyle magazine. Haruka has not taken outside investment. The boutique has grown slowly, by design: a second seamstress joined in 2020, a third in 2022. The atelier moved to its current, slightly larger space on the same street in the autumn of 2021.
Il mestiere
Today Tech Core Nex Wave produces two collections a year. A summer swimwear line and a winter lingerie line. Plus a small number of made-to-order pieces for clients who want something specific. The fabrics are still sourced from the same Lyon mill, with a second supplier in Porto added in 2023 for a particular stretch-lace we could not find anywhere else. Haruka still cuts the patterns herself. The team is five people. That is not a constraint; it is a choice.
Haruka Nishimoto grew up in Kyoto and moved to Paris at twenty-three to study pattern-cutting at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. She spent eight years as a pattern-cutter for a French lingerie house in the 2nd arrondissement, then two seasons assisting a swimwear designer in Barcelona before returning to Tokyo in 2017. She founded Tech Core Nex Wave in Daikanyama in the spring of 2018 with seven pieces and one assistant. She still cuts every pattern by hand. On Saturday mornings, when the atelier is quiet, she swims at the Meguro pool before opening the boutique.